Pairing up at dusk: Wing’s images and St. Kate’s music

The O’Shaughnessy windows facing The Quad will serve as a giant screen for a series of images by local photographer Wing Young Huie Sept. 9–30. Music by the St. Kate’s community will accompany the photos.

No two images are alike. There are people of all ages, races and occupations. There are men in prayer and women crossing the street; little children bundled up against the cold. Some are holding chalkboards with answers to questions photographer Wing Young Huie has asked them.

From Sept. 9–30, St. Catherine University will mount nightly projections of these striking and curious images at The O’Shaughnessy beginning at dusk, around 7:45 p.m. The 90-minute show — projected onto the two large windows (roughly six-feet tall by eight-feet wide) above the auditorium’s main doors — will be accompanied by music composed or performed by St. Kate’s students, faculty, staff and alums.

Wing, a native of Duluth, Minn., has received international acclaim for his projects documenting the diverse ethnic and socioeconomic communities of his home state. His best-known work is "Lake Street USA."

“We’re doing this in preparation for his Core Convocation presentation at The O’Shaughnessy on September 30,” says Allison Adrian, an ethnomusicologist and assistant professor in St. Kate's music department. (Wing will speak about "Identity and the Minnesotan Landscape" that day at 7 p.m.)

“The nightly projections will be a retrospective of all of Wing’s work, featuring images from neighborhoods in our backyard such as Frogtown and Lake Street,” she adds. “But we’ll have largely images from the University Avenue Project.”

Over the summer, Adrian put a call out to the St. Kate’s community for music to run with the projections. She has received CDs and mp3 recordings from numerous people, including the University's Women’s Choir and an alumna from China, that range from spoken word to indie rock.

“With music, you run the risk of telling people how to feel,” she says. “We’re used to this as viewers watching films; for example, music swells as the kiss happens. For this project at St. Kate’s, we don’t want to tell you what to feel or how to react. We want you to have your own reactions.”

According to Wing, “the best photos suggest ambiguities of life, allowing space for interpretations.”

Wing’s questions In some of Wing’s photos, people are holding small chalkboards with a word or a sentence. These are replies to one of the following questions: